Prof. Joseph T. Hupp

Prof. Joseph Hupp

Monday May 22nd

Water and Sunlight: Chemistry for a Hydrogen-powered Energy Future

Abstract

Molecular hydrogen from water is the ultimate chemical energy
carrier and, arguably, the ultimate storable and portable renewable energy
source. The fuel-cell powered Toyota Mirai represents an early and successful commercial
embodiment of these notions. For H2 to be truly portable, useable,
and renewable, however, we require: 1) an environmentally friendly, carbon
neutral source, 2) a rapid and compact means of storing and releasing H2,
and 3) an efficient means of transforming stored chemical energy into
mechanically useable power. Electrochemical fuel cells together with electric
motors satisfy the last requirement a cost-effective and remarkably
energy-efficient fashion. The other two, however, present significant
challenges – ones that chemists may be uniquely well equipped to meet.

This talk will focus first on the design and application of stable,
well-defined, ultra-high surface area materials that can meet the challenge of
rapid and compact H2 storage and release. The route to meeting this
challenge provides an illustration of how computational modeling and
experimental synthesis can be usefully combined to zero-in on high-performing,
molecule-derived materials.

For the balance of the talk I’ll put the focus
on catalyst design, synthesis, and utilization. Energy-efficient production of solar fuels,
such as hydrogen derived from water splitting, requires good catalysts and
photo-catalysts. By way of illustration, I will describe how an emerging
synthesis technique, AIM (Atomic
layer deposition In MOFs), can be used to make
high-density, periodic arrays of catalytic clusters with close-to-single-atom
precision, and how these arrays can be used for catalytic and photo-catalytic
water splitting